Manufacturers

Polar Alinment

Polar alignment for Astrophotography and normal viewing.

A
German Equatorial mount has an adjustment, sometimes called a wedge,
which tilts the mount's polar axis so that it points at the appropriate
Celestial Pole (NCP or SCP). Once the mount has been polar aligned, it
needs to be rotated around only the polar axis to keep an object
centred. Do not reposition the mount base or change the latitude
setting. The mount has already been correctly aligned for your
geographical location (ie. Latitude), and all remaining telescope
pointing is done by rotating the optical tube around the polar (R.A.)
and declination axes. A problem for many beginners is recognizing that
a polar-aligned equatorial mount acts like an alt-azimuth mount which
has been aligned to a celestial pole. The wedge tilts the mount to an
angle equal to the observer's Latitude, and therefore it swivels around
a plane which parallels the celestial (and Earth's) equator. This is
now its "horizon"; but remember that part of the new horizon is usually
blocked by the Earth. This new "azimuth" motion is called Right
Ascension (R.A). In addition, the mount swivels North(+) and South(-)
from the Celestial Equator towards the celestial poles. This plus or
minus "altitude" from the celestial equator is called Declination (Dec).

Scribe
a line on the ground pointing South. To do this, use a compas and add
the Magnetical Declination MD to 180deg for your area.

Place
your tripod over the line scribed and pointing south and level the
tripod as good as possible. Prefably with a digital protractor.

Now
place your equatorial mount on the tripod and adjust your Latitude on
the mount. Again you can use the digital protractor or otherwise the
protractor on the side of the mount.

Finaly add your telescope and set the balance carefully in both RA and DEC positions

If
you have a computerised handpad and need better acuracy for goto
functions or Astrophotography, you need to do the next steps as well.

Input all information acurately on your hanpad. Date format, position deg min sec or just deg.

Do 3star alinment, but make sure that the star is properly centred.

If your telescope's alinment is not sucsessfull, your mount's alinment is off or your data input is incorrect.